Due to pregnancy Diana Damrau withdraws from Robert le diable

Due to pregnancy, German soprano Diana Damrau has withdrawn from the role of Isabelle in The Royal Opera’s new production of Robert le diable which opens in December 2012. Replacement casting for the role will be announced in due course.

Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Romantic gothic opera Robert le diable, which had its premiere in 1831 at the Paris Opéra, is presented for the first time since 1890 at Covent Garden in a new production by Laurent Pelly. The production draws upon French medieval art and architecture for its design, and promises to be full of Pelly’s usual stunning theatrical effects. Hailed by Chopin as a ‘masterpiece’ at its premiere, this operatic rarity is conducted by French and Italian opera specialist Daniel Oren.

The rest of the cast remains unchanged with American tenor Bryan Hymel in the title role, American bass-baritone John Relyea as Bertram, Russian soprano and former Jette Parker Young Artist Marina Poplavskaya as Alice, French bass Nicolas Courjal as Alberti and French tenor Jean-François Borras as Raimbaut.

I wonder how long intervals at Covent Garden useally are. I suppose they last about 30 minutes each. So, counting 30 minutes per interval and deducting that from the predicted lenght of the evening (4 hours 30 minutes), there is 3 hours 30 minutes of music left. Compare that to the lenght of the Berlin production in 2000 and I can say for sure that this production will feature either some impressive big cuts, or greater number of smaller cuts in the score. What a shame... They had the chance to finally make an historic COMPLETE performance of this opera, maybe even record that. Or... intervals at the ROH last only 20 minutes and we could be in for a fantastic surprise!